151THEN ELIPHAZ the Temanite answered [Job],2Should a wise man utter such windy knowledge [as we have just heard] and fill himself with the east wind [of withering, parching, and violent accusations]?3Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches with which he can do no good?4Indeed, you are doing away with [reverential] fear, and you are hindering and diminishing meditation and devotion before God.5For your iniquity teaches your mouth, and you choose the tongue of the crafty.6Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; yes, your own lips testify against you.7Are you the first man that was born [the original wise man]? Or were you created before the hills?8Were you present to hear the secret counsel of God? And do you limit [the possession of] wisdom to yourself?9What do you know that we know not? What do you understand that is not equally clear to us?10Among us are both the gray-haired and the aged, older than your father by far.11Are God’s consolations [as we have interpreted them to you] too trivial for you? Is there any secret thing (any bosom sin) which you have not given up? [Or] were we too gentle [in our first speech] toward you to be effective?12Why does your heart carry you away [why allow yourself to be controlled by feeling]? And why do your eyes flash [in anger or contempt],13That you turn your spirit against God and let [such] words [as you have spoken] go out of your mouth?14What is man, that he could be pure and clean? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be right and just?15Behold, [God] puts no trust in His holy ones [the angels]; indeed, the heavens are not clean in His sight--16How much less that which is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water?17I will show you, hear me; and that which I have seen I will relate,18What wise men have not hid but have freely communicated; it was told to them by their fathers,19Unto whom alone the land was given, and no stranger intruded or passed among them [corrupting the truth].20The wicked man suffers with [self-inflicted] torment all his days, through all the years that are numbered and laid up for him, the oppressor.21A [dreadful] sound of terrors is in his ears; in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him [the dwellings of robbers are not at peace].22He believes that he will not return out of darkness, and [because of his guilt] he is waited for by the sword [of God’s vengeance].23He wanders abroad for food, saying, Where is it? He knows that the day of darkness and destruction is already close upon him.24Distress and anguish terrify him; [he knows] they shall prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.25Because he has stretched out his hand against God and bids defiance and behaves himself proudly against the Almighty,26Running stubbornly against Him with a thickly ornamented shield;27Because he has covered his face with his fat, adding layers of fat on his loins [giving himself up to animal pleasures],28And has lived in desolate [God-forsaken] cities and in houses which no man should inhabit, which were destined to become heaps [of ruins];29He shall not be rich, neither shall his wealth last, neither shall his produce bend to the earth nor his possessions be extended on the earth.30He shall not depart out of darkness [and escape from calamity; the wrath of God] shall consume him as flame consumes a dry tree, and by the blast of His mouth he shall be swept away.31Let him not deceive himself and trust in vanity (emptiness, falseness, and futility), for these shall be his recompense [for such living].32It shall be accomplished and paid in full while he still lives, and his branch shall not be green [but shall wither away].33He shall fail to bring his grapes to maturity [leaving them to wither unnourished] on the vine and shall cast off blossoms [and fail to bring forth fruit] like the olive tree.34For the company of the godless shall be barren, and fire shall consume the tents of bribery (wrong and injustice).35They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity, and their inmost soul hatches deceit.